Sometimes you don't know whether a wicked observation has been delivered with malice or affection. (In fact, the wickeder it is, the funnier -- or maybe the more offensive.) And heaven knows there's good cause to be wary if someone delivers a poke about your faith community.

You talkin' to me?

But safe to say, John Mark Reynolds, a faculty member at Biola University, a conservative evangelical institution in Southern California, means little harm in his tongue-in-cheek game in which he fits some well-known Biblical figures into modern-day religion.

Example:

Ezra: Southern Baptist. "Why? Has a great church building program."

Moses: Catholic. "Why? Central authority figure who likes ritual and many rules, some about sex."

Isaiah: Lutheran. "Why? Wrote stuff suitable for organ music."

You get the picture.

Reynolds is a academic, so part of the joke here is its high-toned title: "Identifying the Biblical Writers by Church Affiliation: A Scholarly Exercise."

Check out the rest of it here, in Scriptorium, the online new-media daily of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola.

Take it with some de-caf.

That's it for Convictions at the close of this inaugural year. Check back early in 2010